ISLAMABAD, NOV 21 (DNA) — Doctors on Monday advice former prime minister and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo Nawaz Sharif to visit the United States before returning to Pakistan.

Sources privy to the development said that the PML-N supremo has been advised to visit US for treatment before heading back to Pakistan and Sharif has informed the party leadership regarding the schedule.

Sources privy to the party said that the former premier will undergo treatment for his arteries from the US and his family has also approached the embassy pertaining to US visit. Sources further said that the PML-N supremo has been advised to visit US after receiving his passport and party vice president Maryam Nawaz will accompany her father in the visit.

Nawaz Sharif will also undergo a surgery in Britain upon returning from the US and he will give timeframe for his return to the country after surgery. In 2019, Nawaz Sharif on November 19 left for London in an air ambulance for medical treatment for multiple diseases after the Lahore High Court allowed him to travel abroad for four weeks and rejected the Imran Khan government’s condition of furnishing an indemnity bond.

Sharif, 69, was accompanied by his younger brother Shehbaz Sharif and his personal physician Adnan Khan. He left for London via Qatar in a “high-end” air ambulance which arrived from Doha.

Sharif was taken to Harely Street Clinic upon arrival in London for his treatment and if required he may be shifted to Boston (US) for further treatment.

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government had granted a one-time permission to Sharif for four weeks to travel abroad for his treatment provided he submitted indemnity bonds. Sharif challenged this condition in the court terming it ‘illegal’ and a “trap” of prime minister Khan to use them (bonds) for his political gains.

He recently secured eight weeks bail on medical grounds from the Islamabad High Court in the Al-Azizia Mills corruption case in which he was serving seven years imprisonment. He also got bail from the LHC in the money laundering case.

He agreed to go to the U.K. for treatment, heeding doctors’ advice and accepting his family’s request. He was scheduled to leave for London on a Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flight on November 17. However, he could not leave as his name figured in the no fly-list.

‘Allowing Nawaz Sharif to visit UK was a mistake’ On the other hand, former PM Imran Khan had said that allowing former premier Nawaz Sharif to leave the country for medical treatment in the UK was a “mistake” and his government “regretted” the decision.

Khan said it was a “mistake” on his part to allow Sharif to leave Pakistan. He said his government “regretted” the decision to lift a ban on Sharif. “Now we feel embarrassed. Now he (Nawaz) has started doing politics [from] there as well and, when you see him, it seems like there is nothing (wrong) with him,” Khan said.

In May, a fresh picture of Sharif having tea at a London cafe along with his family went viral on social media, sparking a debate on his health with PTI members demanding his return to face corruption cases.

In the picture, he was seen sitting at a roadside cafe with his granddaughters. He sported a blue shalwar kameez and a cap and apparently looked in better health. The government came under criticism when last week Mr. Sharif’s photos surfaced, showing him strolling in a street, prompting calls from within the ruling party to bring him back.

Mr. Khan said that Mr. Sharif was diagnosed with an immune system disorder and his illness was discussed in the Cabinet and a decision was made to let him go for treatment. He said the court had also observed that the government would be responsible if something happened to Sharif. =DNA